This course explores the fascist-era cinemas of Germany, Italy, and Japan. We will analyze important films from the era at weekly screenings, and will study historical documents and critical essays to help us understand the context. After we’ve defined some terms and covered some basic history at the beginning of the semester, the course focuses on a set of common themes to identify both commonalities and specificities of a given context or historical moment. The themes include: fascist aesthetics; nation, “Volk,” race, ethnicity; anti-Semitism; youth and movement; the exalted leader; propaganda and spectacle; entertainment and pleasure; film style; bodies and genders; war fronts and home fronts; and post-fascist visual culture..

The goals of this class are to deepen your historical knowledge; to foster a sense for the political and ideological power of culture, and of the cinema in particular; and to sharpen your ability to engage critically with the power of the moving image. In other words, this course explores not only the history and aesthetics of film, but also their relation to politics and society. Ideally, you will leave this course with a new sensitivity for the dangerous power of Fascist ideology — whether in the cinemas of the 1930s and 40s, in ongoing debates on history and memory, or in today’s popular culture. Course goals are also to help you think about race and ethnicity in historical and present contexts; and to develop skills for communicating clearly and effectively through writing..

Course Requirements:

In addition to regular class participation, requirements include a midterm exam, a final, and a number of writing assignments: weekly film journals, shared online reading responses, and four papers ranging from 2 to 5 pages. The first of these will be devoted to critical discussion of a single film screened in class; the second will ask you to draw connections between a film and Jason Stanley’s book, How Fascism Works; the third will ask you to draw a connection between an anti-Semitic film and a historical source, and the fourth will ask you to make comparisons between two films of your choosing from among those screened for the class.

Intended Audience:

All undergraduates

Class Format:

Lectures will be online, mixing simultaneous and synchronous modes, and synchronous online discussion sections. Students will be required to have access to a microphone and camera, as Zoom will be the primary platform for lecture and discussion.